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The Prince of Wales described the breakdown of his first marriage as a “kind of Greek tragedy”, it has been disclosed, as an extraordinary cache of letters to his confidante Nancy Reagan comes to light.

A series of correspondence spanning four decades details the Prince’s feelings about the end of his marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales, in which he claims “it all keeps getting worse and worse”.

The letter, dated June 21, 1992, is part of a collection of personal correspondence between the Prince and Mrs Reagan, the former US First Lady.

US President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy welcome Prince Charles and Diana to the White House in 1985Credit:
DON RYPKA/AFP/Getty Images

The letters have now been made public after being donated to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library, in Simi Valley, California, following Mrs Reagan’s death, as part of a wish that her papers were left to the public record.

The Mail on Sunday, which printed extracts from the letters, describes how the Prince struck up a friendship with the Reagans in 1974, when he was serving in the Royal Navy and spent a weekend at the home of Walter Annenberg, the then-US ambassador to Britain, in Palm Springs. Mr Reagan was then the Governor of California.

The Prince, who was reportedly so charmed by Mrs Reagan that he told a friend he would have liked to kiss her to thank her for her welcome, continued to write to the First Lady until her death in 2016, using headed notepaper and his distinctive black ink.

Prince Charles with Mr and Mrs Reagan at a White House private dinner in 1981Credit:
Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

In one, he tells how he took up reading literary classics as a distraction from media gossip, saying he hoped it would make him “wiser and more knowledgeable”.

A 1992 letter, relating to the breakdown of the Royal marriage and addressed to My Dear Nancy, tells of the wider fall-out of his very public separation, admitting: “No one can really understand what it all means until it happens to you, which is why it all keeps getting worse and worse.

“One day I will tell you the whole story. It is a kind of Greek tragedy and would certainly make a very good play!”

In 1991, when a tell-all book about Mrs Reagan was published, which included salacious gossip about affairs and plastic surgery, he consoled her: “We live in an increasingly uncivilised world and if you happen to find yourself in a public position it becomes progressively more impossible to operate without every move being regarded as having an ulterior motive.”

In a separate letter, he also complained about “yet another” dinner to raise funds, on that occasion for the Mary Rose restoration, calling them “the bane of my life”.

Prince Charles and Diana with a young Prince WilliamCredit:
Reginald Davis/REX/Shutterstock

In 1994, he details a radio prank in which a DJ telephoned him purporting to be from President Reagan’s office only to wish him happy birthday.

One of the most poignant letters dated June 7, 2002, refers to death of the Queen Mother on March 30, with the Prince admitting: “I fear it has not been very easy to cope of late.

“I have dreaded her eventual departure and now she leaves an enormous chasm in my life.”

The letters are currently being examined by archivists and could go on public display in the future.